Build Yourself Up Instead
by Anne Leighton
Whether you're in front of the media or the mirror, artists and publicists sometimes forget who they're talking with and say something that sets them in a bad light.
"I suck when it comes to returning phone calls," when a simple apology would have been better. Very few journalists will ever probe a publicist or musician with "Why did you forget to call me?" Sometimes an artist makes a very negative statement about himself in an interview, and that ends up being part of a full-fledged article. The journalist might not be aware that he's writing anything negative about the artist. Years ago I interviewed Bret Michaels, from Poison, who explained he wanted photo approval. He mentioned a part of his anatomy between his waist and eyes that he never enjoyed seeing in pictures. So when I wrote the article about him, I explained in the beginning of it different ways Bret was taking care of business, and quoted him on what he didn't like about himself.
When the article came out, the publicist said that Bret was really upset by the sarcastic comment I had written, even though that wasn't my intent. I've interviewed Bret hundreds of times since, so it was water under the bridge. However, Poison fans saw an insecurity about an artist they loved, and that wasn't something Bret wanted to share. So the best rule for keeping what you feel are your negatives out of the media is never bring them up.
When dealing with self-evaluation, understand there'll be times when you might make mistakes. You might come across as dumb or rude with a potential client. Maybe you were late in sending kits out to reporters. Maybe you didn't finish a recording session with the amount of money you had allotted for the project. Beating yourself up isn't going to correct a mistake; it'll just waste time you could have spent reconnecting with a reporter or client.
Be aware of when you start talking down to yourself: "You're such an idiot. You did a bad job. You lost that project because you didn't apply for the gig in time."
If I'm crying heavily, I figure out what's upsetting me, and then motivate myself to work on the problem. Sometimes just the action of correcting myself is a strong enough power to get me in a good mood. Other times it might take a few days, even weeks, before I see results. Once I see results, I'll continue on the good path.
In his book The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale wrote that if there’s a negative in your thoughts, you need to push a positive in there. That takes some mental effort. Sometimes you have to fake that belief that you are not an untalented artist, just contending with a lack of opportunities. He also wrote that negative thoughts need to be replaced with positive actions.
Another motivator is jealousy, but not in a vicious way. A lot of the envy we feel is based on the success of an artist that creates something similar to us. I took a poetry class with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. He mentioned that hungry poets do feel some envy when they read an amazing work or about a book release by another poet. I admit that happens sometimes with me and is an indicator that I need to work on some poems, send them out, or make strides with another aspect of my writing.
There are different places to find resources to improve how you hype your work. Asking a question in the promotions and marketing section of www.velvetrope.com helps because there are other people going through similar struggles. One of my favorite websites is Christopher Knab’s www.musicbizacademy.com/knab. He has loads of advice on how to do publicity, radio promotions, and really get your career going. I’m currently recommending the book Guerilla Publicity by Michael Levine, even though it’s really directed toward people who work with name artists. Fran Capo’s book, Publicity Without a Publicist, is also useful, c/o her website, www.francapo.com.
Again, the bottom line in our careers is that we’re doing this work because we love it. So we should want to make the strides to be more active with building ourselves up.
